Optus has just announced the expansion of their 4G Network to consumers in Sydney, Perth and Newcastle with 4G services to follow in Melbourne from 15th September, 2012. Optus has also announced the first phone on their 4G network will be the Samsung Galaxy S III 4G, which is available for pre-order from today and expected to be delivered on the 20th of September.
Specs listed on the Optus :
- 4.8″ HD Super AMOLED Display with Gorilla Glass 2
- 16GB onboard storage with Micro SD up to 64GB
- 8MP AF + flash with 1.9MP front
- HSPA+ / LTE, Dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n + Wi-Fi Channel Bonding, GPS + GLONASS, Bluetooth v4.0 HS
- 136.6 x 70.6 x 8.6mm @ 133grams
- 3G : UMTS 900 and 2100MHz / HSPA+ 42Mbps
- 4G : LTE FDD 800, 1800 and 2600Mhz / 100Mbps
The plans available attract a premium for the 4G service so you can expect to pay for the high speed service. Plans on offer are over 24 months :
- $35 per month with $19 handset repayments with $200 of calls/SMS and 200MB of data Min. total cost is $1,296.00 over 24 months.
- $50 per month with $13 handset repayments with $500 of calls/SMS and 1GB of data Min. total cost is $1,512.00 over 24 months.
- $60 per month with $7 handset repayments with $650 of calls/SMS and 1.5GB of data Min. total cost is $1,608.00 over 24 months.
$80 per month with $4 handset repayments with $850 of calls/SMS and 2GB of data Min. total cost is $2,016.00 over 24 months.
To check out the plans and the phone head on over to the Optus Webpage
The coverage for the Optus 4G network is still rolling out, to check if you’re in an area covered by their network head across to the Optus 4G Coverage Map website .
Well, that’s good news.
In probably 6-12 months I’ll have 4G on Optus here.
As I generally don’t stray from featurephones though, I’m not sure why I’m excited.
Telstra also announced the Galaxy SIII 4G but didn’t show us any specs or pricing.
http://www.ozfone.net/2012/09/04/samsung-galaxy-siii-4g-launching-on-telstra-in-october/